Shelf Help

        On your plate: Two recent releases offer more advice on why you should be eating what you're probably not:

        • The New Longevity Diet (G.P. Putnam's Sons; $23.95) by Dr. Henry Mallek, a nutritional biochemist and clinical nutritionist, promises to help you live to 120 while enjoying a wide variety of healthy foods. The book looks at specific anti-aging compounds along with where to find them and what they do.

        • The Healing Diet: A Total Health Program to Purify Your Lymph System and Reduce the Risk of Heart Disease, Arthritis and Cancer (William Morrow; $25) by cardiologist Dr. Gerald M. Lemole says a plant-based diet can help eliminate 70 percent of chronic ailments that affect the lymph system. The book includes meal plans and menus.

Resource

        Fore: Golf is great exercise, proclaims the U.S. Golf Association — unless you take advantage of what USGA officials call the “inexcusable trend of cart golf.”

        To reverse that trend, the association is promoting its “Golf Is a Walking Game” initiative. The program is open to USGA members, and benefits include a Walking Member bag tag and booklet “A Call to Feet: Golf is a Walking Game.”

        For membership information, call (800) 223-0041 or check out www.USGA.org.

Calendar

        Munch: Dr. Stephen Brewer will explain why eating the right foods is vital to achieving physical, mental and spiritual health in “Nutrition for Life” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the TriHealth Fitness and Health Pavilion, 6200 Pfeiffer Road, Blue Ash. Call 985-6736 to register.

        Let the kicking begin: The Cincinnati Recreation Commission's spring soccer season for men's, women's and co-recreational teams, begins March 25. Call 352-4020 for information.

Research

        Scan arteries: Calcium deposits may put physically fit people at risk for heart attacks, even if they don't meet other risk factors for heart disease, a new study says.

        An electron beam computed tomography scan (EBCT) can detect calcium deposits in coronary arteries. The calcium can become part of the build-up that causes atherosclerosis, or hardening and thickening of the arteries. A higher calcium score might mean more advanced atherosclerosis and a higher risk for future coronary events.

        Researchers used the EBCT scan on 436 students in the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. The students, average age 43, were considered very fit. They underwent extensive cardiovascular and fitness evaluations.

        Seven of the students, or 1.6 percent, had advanced atherosclerosis. Researchers said a score of 400 would be considered to indicate advanced atherosclerosis. Of the seven, four had calcium scores of more than 1,000 and two suffered heart attacks within six months of the tests.

        “In this group, traditional exercise stress tests were not predictive of a coronary event,” said Dr. Jerel Zoltick, a U.S. Army cardiologist and consultant to the Office of Surgeon General. “We were surprised by the high scores in a group that was very physically fit and had undergone routine physical examinations.”

        High total cholesterol is associated with higher calcium scores. But the study showed that not everyone with high calcium levels had high cholesterol.

        The study was presented March 1 at the American Heart Association's 41st Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

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